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"That which is red is the lycoris flower, but redder still is this red play of fate." --Kakunoujo

Well, I have returned to the stage, as it were, with this video for Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, which is one of the best anime I have seen in years, hands down. It begins in the final months of the shogunate and follows the adventures of one "mere ronin," Akidzuki Youjirou, and his efforts to seal an evil magical relic, the 2000 year-old head of a condemned Chinese criminal, which has brought periodic chaos and destruction on Japan ever since. It's called the Conqueror's Head, and he is the Eternal Assassin, wielding the Moontear Sword. Akidzuki becomes entangled with a third-rate kabuki troupe (not a term of denigration, but a type of kabuki) out for revenge on the man who murdered their leader's parents, and he never really manages to unentangle himself. Meanwhile events in the larger political and international order won't stop for anything.

Since actors and acting feature so prominently in it, and since all the characters are sort of caught up in the forces of events, I thought that "The Show Must Go On" would make a great video for the anime. This is the original-cast version from Baz Luhrman's movie "Moulin Rouge;" it was originally a Freddy Mercury song. I chose this version because it's more dramatic and also because I had that CD and not the other.

All in all I'm really proud of a lot of the editing decisions I made in this video, and given that I didn't want to spend forever on it, I'm very happy with how it turned out--all in all I think I spent about eight hours on it. There are a lot of effects in here, but they're mostly messing with the speed/direction of clips, so hopefully they won't stick out too much. I also tried to achieve the highest video quality I could, which means that the vid itself is rather small, but it doesn't look too bad expanded slightly, either.

This video features major spoilers for the first half of the anime, although if I'd wanted to be really mean, I could have ended on the cliffhanger from episode 18. ^_^ Maybe next time. Comments are much appreciated, but really, I don't think I could be happier than with the feedback I received from my sister: "This video is making me want to watch this anime." Please do watch BKI, it really is amazing.